The Idee Blog

TinEye index

2010-02-23T21:15:11Z

Last week we added 28 million images to TinEye and today we topped that by adding 47 million images. The TinEye index is growing and we have more exciting news coming very soon. Happy searching!

Recap: TinEye plugins make image search easier

2010-02-23T01:48:12Z

TinEye browser extensions make searching for image-use faster and easier! Our newest extension for Chrome was unveiled earlier this month on the Chrome Extensions site. Once installed, just click on the TinEye button on your Chrome toolbar, and the extension looks through the page you’re on for all images. Click on the image you want, and voila! TinEye whirls into action.

Our Chrome extension follows the brilliant success of the TinEye Firefox add-on. Over 500,000 downloads and growing, the plugin adds a right-click menu item to allow you to search any image on the net against TinEye’s index. Maximum PC chose TinEye as their Firefox add-on of the week!

Of course, let’s not forget our bookmarklets for iPhone, Blackberry and smartphone junkies. Once you select the TinEye images bookmarklet, all the images on the page you were just viewing will be collected and sent to TinEye. To search for an image, just select the one you want and view the results.

Thanks for spreading the word about TinEye and our extensions. And don’t forget, you can still use the TinEye page to upload your own images!

The TinEye Chrome extension is here!

2010-02-12T21:19:35Z

You asked for it, and we are happy to deliver. The TinEye extension for Chrome is now live, and ready to make your searching a little easier.

Instructions for installing the extension can be found on our plugins page, or you can just jump right over to the Chrome Extensions site and click ‘Install’. It’s that easy! While you’re there, be sure to check out our how-to video on YouTube (or watch it below).

This extension works for Windows and Linux. Once Chrome supports it, a Mac version will be coming soon. Also, Chrome currently does not support right-clicking so the present extension behaves similar to our TinEye bookmarklet (but much nicer!). We’ll be updating the functionality once right-clicking is made available.

Enjoy!

TinEye planned downtime for Feb 9th @ 10am EST

2010-02-09T15:23:14Z

Hi folks,

Just a head’s up that we have some planned downtime for TinEye scheduled for Tuesday February 9th @ 10am EST. We will be doing some behind-the-scenes maintenance and TinEye should only be offline for about an hour. Thanks for your patience.

Photo by Jakob Montrasio

TinEye commercial accounts… the really-super-easy way

2010-01-27T18:20:31Z

A while back we introduced a commercial version of TinEye: a paid search alternative for professional, commercial or high-volume users. While the free version of TinEye only allows you to do a limited number of searches per day and is for non commercial use only, the commercial version of TinEye allows you to purchase as many searches as you like–for commercial or non-commercial use.

We initially launched the commercial version of TinEye as an API only, but what a lot of people don’t know is that we now also provide a user-friendly interface for commercial accounts, over at our commercial website.

This means that you can create a commercial TinEye account and use it to search for images in the same way that you are used to doing at tineye.com. Upload an image, or cut and paste a URL. There is even a separate browser plugin for commercial accounts so that you can right-click on any web image to search for it.

So let’s get started! Here is a step-by-step tutorial on how to get you or your company set up with a TinEye commercial account and start searching… the easy way.

1.

Go to the TinEye commercial website. This is different than the regular TinEye website, and all of the commercial stuff is done here, including searching and checking your account.

2.

Click the Sign up tab to sign up for a commercial account. Fill in all of your details, and if you are using TinEye commercially, don’t forget to provide the URL for your company website. You will receive an email verification as soon as you’re done.

3.

Check your email for a message from TinEye and click the verification link! You will be asked to log in with the email and password that you just used to sign up.

4.

Once you’re logged in, you’ll find yourself on the Welcome page. Don’t click away yet! There’s some good-to-know stuff here to help get you started. You can get back to this page from wherever you are on the site by going to About > Welcome (but you need to be logged in!).

5.

Before you can start searching, you need to buy a search bundle (you need to be logged in to actually buy a search bundle, but you can see the pricing even if you’re not). Transactions are handled via PayPal; as soon as you’re done you’ll be directed back to your account summary page on our site, which will show what you just purchased.

6.

You’re all set! Click on the Search tab to get started. Then simply search the way you would normally do on tineye.com. Upload an image from your local drive to search for it, or point to a web image or web page by pasting the URL.

Bonus!

To make searching even easier, get the browser plugin for TinEye commercial accounts. It lets you right-click on any web image to search for it (currently available for the Firefox browser only). To install, go to the Search page and click on the image that says ‘Install the API plugin for Firefox’.

Note: The browser plugins for the regular version of TinEye found at tineye.com/plugin will not work with your TinEye API account. You must install the commercial version to perform searches that will work with your prepaid search bundle.

And that’s it folks, happy searching!

TinEye now accepting image collection submissions

2010-01-19T19:08:21Z

TinEye has just one goal in life: To connect images and information. Whether that means finding the original author of an image, finding out where an image has been used on the web, or finding out more information about an image in general, TinEye wants to help you find the information you’re looking for. And the bigger our database of images, the better!

We have been crawling the web relentlessly over the past several months. In October ‘09 we grew by 21.5 million images. In November we grew by 22.5 million images. In December we leaped up another 65 million images. And in January alone we’ve added 44 million images and the month is not over yet!

In addition to our regular web crawling, we have started adding entire specialized image collections. Last week we announced the addition of the iStockphoto and Photoshelter stock photo collections to TinEye. Why? Because we want to make it easy to attribute any stock image to its original author, and facilitate sales. And we plan to add new and different specialized image collections over the coming weeks and months. Maybe even yours?

So… calling all companies dealing with large image collections on the web! TinEye is officially accepting your image collection submissions. Here are some of the things we are looking for:

Stock and editorial photography collections
Art and illustration collections
Product image indexes and catalogs
Archival or historical image collections
You tell us!

If you are an image provider or deal with large image collections as a part of your business–and if you want more people connecting with your images–then we want to hear from you! Preference will be given to collections containing over 1 million images, and to companies with an existing image management and delivery procedure.

To add your image collection to TinEye, please contact us. Help us connect your images to you!

(Photo by Kjunstorm)

A groovy TinEye tutorial

2010-01-19T17:15:03Z

Groove Dexter over at groovyPost wrote up a great tutorial on how to use TinEye. It covers finding larger versions of an image, using the ‘Compare Images’ feature to compare similar images, and finding out more information about the subject of an image. Check it out, you might learn something new!

Join TinEye on Facebook

2010-01-15T15:20:24Z

That’s right, TinEye has got a shiny new page on Facebook, and we want you to join us there. Get the latest news about TinEye, find out what other TinEyers are up to, or just join the conversation and fun in general!

New blog posts, release notes and tweets are all updated on our Facebook page, so you can get all our news in one convenient location. We’ll be answering your questions and posting our little hearts out with fun or interesting stuff. Keep an eye out for special contests and giveaways, too!

Visit our page today, and if you’ve already got a Facebook account don’t forget to become a fan of TinEye by clicking the ‘Become a Fan’ button at the top of the page. See you there!

Who created that image? TinEye adds the iStockphoto and Photoshelter collections.

2010-01-14T16:58:57Z

We are happy to announce that TinEye our reverse image search engine has grown its index again adding over 32 million images including the entire iStockphoto and Photoshelter image collections. This is great news for photographers, image buyers and anyone interested in copyright compliance and attribution.

Today the TinEye index sits at just over 1.2 billion images – yes, that’s billion not million – 1,267,565,027 to be exact. As we grow we have been looking at how to answer just one question:

who created that image?

Why is this important? Simple: Attribution. Creators want to establish authorship of their work and also know where their images are used. TinEye facilitates both.

As TinEye’s index grew, TinEye became the defacto image registry. Every day TinEye answers the “who created that image” question and connects images to their source. TinEye does this without keywords or metadata. Simply use an image to find an image. This is what we like to call the beginning of the attribution movement.

To start we are adding the world’s stock photography images to TinEye to connect all images available for licensing to their creator and distributor. And that’s just the beginning.

Every day TinEye helps image authors by:

linking images to the original author – this is about attribution
allowing image buyers to find the proper distributor of an image to purchase it
showing how and where images are being used on the web
protecting against image theft

Maybe you are a designer and you’d like to purchase an image for a project and you have a thumbnail or comp image but you’re not sure where it came from. Maybe you’re in love with a certain awesome image and would like to see the author’s other work. Maybe you want to see who else on the web is using an image… maybe you’re the image author. It does not matter: TinEye connects the dots for you.

At TinEye, we want to index every image in the world to help you find what you are looking for. iStockphoto and Photoshelter are a pretty awesome step towards that but it does not stop there. We will be adding a series of stock photography collections in the coming weeks so please stay tuned. If you are interested in having your image collection added to TinEye, get in touch.

Start using TinEye or join the 500,000 people who dowloaded our TinEye Firefox add-on to make image searching a single click.

TinEye Firefox add-on

2010-01-13T14:16:24Z

Thanks TinEye fans! Our TinEye Firefox add-on broke 500,000 downloads this week. We are excited!